The Department of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology provides a supportive environemnt for faculty, staff, trainees and students from all national, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This creates an intellectual and physical environment in which basic chemical principles are applied to the understanding of cell signaling events, with these new insights then used in the creation of new therapeutic strategies. The major responsibilities of the Department are to: (1) educate medical students and physicians in the rationale for drug selection; (2) train contemporary pharmacologists; (3) develop new knowledge in the biomedical sciences; and (4) provide information about existing and emerging drugs to members of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the University of Pittsburgh and the general community.